How Do I Produce A Similar Manual With Only Some Different Topics?

We have produced a standard manual with many topics. We now want to produce a similar manual with only some of the topics changed.

What is the best way to do this without redoing everything?

Answer

You can duplicate the Book. This makes a copy of the original Book, and includes all of its Topics without duplicating them. To do this:

1. Open the Book, then choose Object > Duplicate from the Author-it main menu. Another Book is created called "Copy of..."
2. Rename the new Book.
3. Remove any topics that you do not want from your new Book's Contents list.
4. Because exactly the same topics are used in both Books, any changes you make to a Topic will occur in both Books. So, to change a topic in one book but not in the other, you'll first need to duplicate that topic (open the Topic, then choose Object > Duplicate from the Author-it main menu), then make your changes to the Topic called "Copy of...".
5. Add any new topics that only apply to the new Book, including any that you have just duplicated and changed.